Ah Canada. Gotta love us.
All kinds of things are going on in the world and our top story is what is really affecting us. Our favorite topic. Weather!
We are a hearty bunch but I admit we are getting cranky, depressed and brittle.
Recording breaking cold weather has held us in it’s grip too long.
It isn’t that the mean temperature is extraodinarily low, it’s the wind chill.
-40C is literally bone chilling.
Only four or five days of sun the past month depletes us. Days and days and days of snow flurries and blizzards cause pragmatic people to complain.
While most Canadians shiver and face an serious energy crunch, our companions in BC are counting flowers. Grrrrr.
It’s been a brutal winter for the rest of the country.
How about cheering up some cabin-fevered Canuck bloggers today?
Remind us that a March that comes in like a lion out like a lamb. Or something!
Jordon Cooper admited he’s just about had enough. gooddogbaddog has taken a drastic step. Looking back…looking forward is hanging on, after his area of the country broke 60 year old records. IdeaJoy must have burrowed under fleece sheets. Wendy Cooper isn’t impressed with having to drive. It looks like Brianna isn’t surfacing to blog until spring. DashHouse is waxing eloquent about Tim Hortons. Preach it bro!
The web-elfs at CaNN are wierding out.
relapsed catholic is conserving energy like a good citizen and didn’t post.
I think John Campea’s blog froze.
And yep, it’s getting to me too.
I forgot a few of you, so all Canucks get to pile into the comments section and complain today!
The rest of you….say something warm!
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Ok, so enough already. Yeah yeah, Winnipeg is Winterpeg and “It’s a dry cold though!” I am so sick and tired of hearing these raggedy ass comments. After -25 who gives a good G.D. how dry the cold is, it is freaking freezing! I would like to know who came up with the term “wind chill”? How about we be more truthful and call it “bonemarrow freezing factor” or “Too freaking cold to go outside chill”? Wind chill…hmmph how cute a term for such a devastingly mind numbing as well as every extremity and appendage, freak of winter!!! Ah but you are a Canadian..you should be aclimitized? What moron living way south of the border thought that one up? We lost our fur way back in the A.D. or was it B.C.? ages. I for one do not find it fun to go out with 12 layers of clothing just so that I can make it to the car without every exposed patch of skin turning into a popsicle. Not to mention how bulky and non-slimming this style is. I must say one positive here though, Winnipeg does get more sunshine than my friend Bene’s hometown. Yep, it’s sunny here, all the better to see your frozen exhalations and truly appreciate how hard the wind is actually blowing. Wind chill indeed!!!
As a Fargo, ND resident, I can commiserate. I like winter for a number of reasons: I enjoy the change of seasons, I like winter sports (I’ve even curled a time or two), the lack of mosquitos is a good thing, and as we say in North Dakota, “40 below keeps out the riff-raff.”
But week after week of bone-cracking cold and wind does wear on one.
In our hometown the stores carry fashion fleece. How can fleece be fashionable? My last four purchases have been fleece trackpants, a fleece shirt, two fleece jackets. I hate fleece. I haven’t seen fleece socks, so I buy expedition socks, for subzero temperatures. My boots are good to -40C. At 5′2″ I look and feel like a fuzzy toy, albeit a brightly coloured one. My workouts consist of peeling off layers of clothing, it’s an aerobic exercise not offered in any gym. People up north are still polite, but not chirpy anymore. It should be interesting when spring comes, the masses will erupt from their homes and mob the garden centre at WalMart…. Cricket
I hear ya cricket - I just bought a cozy little fleece shirt with a teddy bear on it.
Hey Roy:
You’ve curled?
And endured a week of -40C?
A week is a start….want to be an honourary Canuck?
Lol! I love the polar bear! I know I am neither a Canuck nor have I suffered with sub zero temps the way that all of you in the Great White North have. But, believe it or not, we here in Texas have had our share of freezing temps this year…to make us ask is it the end times or is it just El Nino? ;)….But seriously, we here are weary of the cold also. Wimpy compared to Y’all?? Yes! But then again, we’ll compare notes again when it’s a sweltering 114 degrees F. and 98% humidity here! Everything is relative.
Hey Rich….yep. That was warm alright. Way to go!
We’re all too cold to remember everythings relative. Thanks.
Blog on!
Bene,
Remember, I’m below the 49th parallel, so that’s 40 below Farenheit (although at -40, F and C are the same thing). Yes, it has been that cold here, and the cold snaps can last for weeks at a time. Hasn’t hit -40 this year, but this morning when I got up it was -15 F (-26 C). I think Grand Forks (about 80 miles north of here) hit 30 below this morning.
There’s a curling club just a few blocks away from my house. My roomate in college was an avid curler (he was from northern Minnesota) and I took curling for a PE credit. It’s much more fun to do than to watch.
Hey Roy:
An honourary Canuck if I ever saw one!
“Cold? *This* isn’t cold! Why, I remember the winter of xx. Now that was cold. Real cold. So cold that Superior froze solid. (That’s right, you could see the fish starin’ back up at you. Mmmmhmmm… mmhmmm..mhmm. Froze. Solid.) So cold that Arctic Fox migrated to Florida… yep, that was a cold winter.” (spitting out a piece of spruce gum)
*grin*
I’m sure that people just about everywhere like to talk about the weather, but there are moments that we Canadians make it a fine art. Well… not really talking about the weather. More like… ummm… complaining about it.
There was a wonderful sketch on Royal Canadian Air Farce a few years ago. One guy was standing in a bus shelter, somewhere in Canada. Stomping his feet, blowing into his hands - trying to keep warm. A second person joins him - stomping, blowing, moving. They’re quiet for a moment, when the second turns to the first and says, “This weather, eh?” “OH, yeah,” says the other, “cold. Yeah. Real cold. This… now this is cold.” A third person comes in the shelter - same process - same conversation. A fourth person comes into the shelter and silence ensues. The new guy says, “Wow! Those Senators last night, eh?” Everybody ignores him. Silence. Pause. “So, did you hear the Prime Minister on the news this morning? I couldn’t believe…” Silence. Pause. Then he says, “Cold, eh?” Suddenly, everybody starts up with, “Oh yeah! It sure is cold. Why, I didn’t think it could, etc. etc. etc.”
Truly Canadian.
Blessings and peace - Richard
Well, I see that I am not alone. I had just finished posting my March winter complaint and came here and found out I was in good company. The country that freezes together…um, something, something together…I’m not sure what.Too cold to think.
Karen N.
Well, I live in Brazil and itīs terribly hot in here.
Itīs difficult to us, Brazilian people, to imagine how you can live with such freezing temperatures.
I visited Canada 20 years ago and I still remember that despite we were in September it was already pretty cold.
Itīs an interesting world we live in, isnīt it?
Hi Gisela….I had a friend return from a trip to Brazil recently.
I suspect he wishes he was visiting your country now.
Come back and see us Canucks anytime…June to August is usually tolerable!
It is indeed a very interesting world.
We kiwis don’t know the meaning of cold, however: we don’t have central heating here and no double glazed windows for us, so if it does get a little chilly (like
As much as we complain, I suspect many of us would miss snow dreadfully.
That was nice and warm, thanks, feel better already!
The thing about Calgary is it’s up and down like a yo-yo. Last night it was minus -21°C when I got home, less than 12 hours later at 6 am it -3°C , now at 12:02 pm we’re back down to -14°C and snow.
Calgary get’s winter in March, go figure.
-Peace
As one of the BC companions (living in Vancouver), I am reading the post and comments and I have to admit I have the teeniest, tinyist smirk. I’m sorry. It’s terrible ungracious of me, not to mention just down right rude. I’ll ponder that while I check out the daffodils that are blooming on my deck.
On a more serious note, we’ve had NO SNOW. None. (I should qualify that a bit - we haven’t had any snow at sea level and only a little bit on the local mountains). That means low reserviors and rivers in the summer. That’ll be hard on both animals and people. I know we usually have it unbelievalbly easy compared to the rest of the country, but the lack of snow is going to be a big problem for us come summer.
I posted some Saskatoon cold pictures over at http://www.jordoncooper.com, it isn’t pleasant here right now.
This is ridiculous, Bene… it being so cold over there and so hot over here. Feels like Malaysia’s having a heat wave, it’s been unbearably hot and humid over the past week or so. The air’s oppressively heavy and still. We just sit and perspire… I woke up two nights ago and couldn’t go back to sleep, my fan wasn’t doing any good. Got off the bed and slept on the cold (hard!) marble floor instead. Oh, for air-conditioning…
Wanna trade places???
We may be counting flowers in BC, but it snowed in Victoria today, and I forgot my jacket. Bah!